Hundreds of mermaids, mermen and merbabies descended on a Sussex seaside town on Saturday (September 2), as it played host to a world record attempt to create the largest gathing of mermaids.

Organisers said they were ‘ecstatic’ and ‘over the moon’ as a total of 325 turned up for the feat.

Bexhill Festival of the Sea and Mermaids on the Beach 2017. Photo by Frank Copper. SUS-170409-093259001

More than 300 entries were needed to make the Guinness World Record in Bexhill a success.

In January around 300 people from 12 countries gathered in Greensboro, North Carolina in the USA for the annual MerMania convention dressed as mermaids.

The gathering was one of the highlights of this year’s Bexhill Festival of the Sea.

Carole Green, organiser, said: “We thought this would fit in well with the festival and it did. A lot of children took part, as well as families. There were whole families of mermaids and we had a wonderful time.”

As well as the mermaid gathering, Bexhill Festival of the Sea featured more than 50 stalls highlighting Sussex produce and seafood cuisine from around the world.

There were also cooking demonstrations, free angling coaching, children’s fun fair, dancing and live music on the Metropole Lawns next to the De La Warr Pavilion.

To close the festival there was a concert on Sunday with international stars, Peter Knight’s Gigspanner and Liane Carroll.

Carole added: “This year’s festival went brilliantly. We had twice as many visitors come this year, compared to last year. I’d say we had between 20,000 and 30,000 people.

Photos by Frank Copper.

Don’t miss out on all the latest breaking news where you live.

Here are four ways you can be sure you’ll be amongst the first to know what’s going on.